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“No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy Hospital, any hospital, none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide,” Biden replied. “That is a fact.”

Today the United States Bishops issued a statement saying, in effect, “Hold on, Joe. It ain’t so”. The HHS mandate issued by the Obama administration will force Catholic institutions to do exactly that. Their statement said, in part:

Catholic employers “will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients,” the USCCB statement said. “They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations — and their employees — are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.”

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed by Catholic organizations to stop the mandate, at least as it applies to them. Logic would tell us that these institutions wouldn’t waste their time and money on these suits if Biden’s words were true. Quoting Ryan,

A missed opportunity

As moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC pointed out, this is a historic election in that both VP candidates are Catholics. She asked them how their Catholic faith affects their stand on abortion. Unfortunately this taylor-made opportunity to speak on behalf of the Church was wasted by both Candidates. I expected the (nominal) Catholic Biden to drop the ball, but Ryan’s response was disappointing as well. Biden claimed to be personally opposed to abortion but went on to say, “But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews.” In other words, the 69 year old, male, Biden wouldn’t have an abortion himself, but it’s fine with him if others do. Quite a bold statement and clearly a misrepresentation of the Catholic faith.

It’s no wonder people, both Catholic and non-Catholic, are confused. When the 2nd most powerful man in the United States makes such a statement, it’s no wonder that faithful Catholics get the idea that abortion is OK. After all, the Church remains silent when he and others make such false statements about our beliefs. No, Joe, when you vote for laws that permit the murder of innocent unborn children. you’re just as guilty of the sin as the person who actually has an abortion, possibly even guiltier because your actions permit many, many immoral acts.

Sadly, Representative Ryan’s comments were only slightly better. He said that he opposes abortions with some exceptions. I’m not sure how you can say that life begins at conception, but some lives are more precious than others. There are any number of ways to deal with an unwanted pregnancy that don’t involve killing the child. Rape isn’t a capital offense for the perpetrator, why should an innocent child conceived as a result of rape have to face the death penalty?

Our Catholic faith is a beautiful thing. It’s a shame that neither candidate used the opportunity of being on the national stage to say so. I wouldn’t expect it from Mr. Biden but Mr. Ryan’s response was very disappointing.